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How much do you know about the pilgrims?

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays. Like all harvest celebrations, it’s a special time in which to give thanks for a successful growing season with enough food to last through the coming winter. For us it’s also a time to offer extra thanks for our abundant blessings of freedom, health, home, friends and family. During our Thanksgiving weekend gatherings inevitably someone will suggest the old New England tradition of retelling the Pilgrims’ story followed by trivia games so we thought you all might also enjoy this too.

The story of the First Thanksgiving

In the fall of 1620 two ships carrying 102 passengers sailed from Plymouth England for the New World. After 66 days at sea, on Nov. 11, 1620 the “Mayflower” dropped anchor in Cape Cod Bay near the tip of modern day Provincetown Massachusetts.

Capt. Myles Standish and a few men immediately disembarked to scout out the area’s natural resources but, having found limited amounts of fresh water and experiencing exposure to the cold winds of the North Atlantic Sea during their explorations, they returned to the ship and recommended the Pilgrims sail on to a more protected site. Finally, on Dec. 11, 1620 the “Mayflower” landed at Plymouth Rock.

The winter of 1602-1621 was a particularly harsh and cold one and many of the colonists who chose to remain sheltered on their ship perished there from communicable diseases caused by conditions associated with poor sanitation. One spring day when the 51 surviving Pilgrims were out walking Samoset, a member of the Abenaki Nation from Maine, unexpectedly emerged from nearby woods and greeted them in English.

Two days later Samoset returned to Plymouth Colony with his friend Squanto, another Native American who also spoke fluent English. For the rest of the year Squanto stayed with colonists, diligently teaching them such survival skills as how to plant crops utilizing fish as fertilizer and helping them to establish a treaty of alliance with the local Native American tribe. By 10 months after their arrival the Pilgrims had successfully farmed enough food to sustain themselves and to have surplus supplies as well.

During this time they’d also managed to build seven houses, a common meeting hall, and three grain and supply storehouses. To celebrate the good fortune of their very survival and their bountiful first harvest, Gov. William Bradford organized a celebratory feast to which he invited the local chief, Massasoit, and his tribesmen. It was a two day walk from their villages but the Native Americans happily accepted the invitation and came to New Plymouth to join the Pilgrims in feasting on fowl, game, seafood and samp.

After much eating and drinking, everyone enjoyed games, singing and dancing.

SOME FIRST THANKSGIVING TRIVIA

Editor’s note: The answers are on a separate page to keep things honest! See page xx for the answers.